The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and a rights-based approach to labour migration

Stefan Rother, Political Sciences, Freiburg University

By the end of 2015, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) should become reality and lead the way to a single market with a free flow of goods, services, investments, capital and skilled labor envisioned for 2020. The AEC clearly has the potential to lead to a significant net job growth in the region – model calculations for six out of the ten member countries predict up to 14 million additional jobs. But to reap these benefits, the community has to step up its policies on labour migration: first, it has to live up to its ambitious plans for free movement of skilled labour, and, second, finally develop a regional approach towards migrant labour in low- and medium-skilled jobs. To be successful, this approach has to be rights-based. It can significantly benefit from a cooperation with migrant civil society which has established frameworks for an “alternative regionalism from below”.